Foam crown molding makes tough job a lot easier

YOUR HOMETHE SUPER HANDYMAN

AL and KELLY CARRELL KING FEATURES

Published 5:30 am, Friday, June 26, 2009

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Foam crown molding makes tough job a lot easier

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Crown molding is like the icing on the cake when it comes to decorating a room. It adds a lot of value to your home as well. And it can be tough to do if you have never tried it before. One solution is to use plastic or polyurethane foam molding pieces. This material is easier to work with and is lightweight. Here are the basics of working with this material.

You start by measuring the walls around your room. It’s a good idea to draw a rough sketch of the room and note the dimensions on your drawing. Note the number of inside and outside corners. Most of the foam molding systems have special corner pieces. This means you don’t have to miter the corners, which can be challenging for a novice, especially when it comes to crown molding.

Once you have all the pieces home, paint them. Doing it this way allows you to paint them on a table or floor, where they will be easy to get to. The foam molding usually goes up with caulk, so little touch-up, if any, is needed.

Before installing the pieces, dry-fit them around the room and make a couple of small marks on the wall at the bottom edge of the molding to make installing it easier.

To cut any piece to fit, you can make a straight cut. A miter box and backsaw will ensure a perfectly straight cut, and you can use a square if you don’t have one.

Apply caulk at the top and bottom edges of the molding strip and place it on the wall. Go all the way around the room, including corners.

It’s a nice touch to go around the bottom edge of the molding with a thin bead of caulk, smoothed with your finger. You can apply a small amount of caulk to your joint. Then touch it up with paint where you need to.

You’ll love the results, and your room will have a lot more class.

Q: My outdoor patio furniture is metal and has started to rust in some spots. It’s really tough, and I don’t want it to fall apart anytime soon. Can you tell me how to fix it? — G.V.

A:You can sand or grind off the old rust. There are some “rust converters” you can use on any leftover rust. Get as much off as you can, as it will continue to spread if you don’t. Then use a primer made for metal paint, and high-quality paint made for exterior metal surfaces. Keep on top of the rust situation, and you might get a few more years out of that old patio set.

Q: How can I find out if I have a water leak under my slab without tearing it to pieces? — J.P.

A:Find a repair company that uses high-tech sensing equipment to locate leaks. They are all over the country, and use a variety of techniques with specialized equipment that won’t damage your slab until the leak is located.

Versatile uses

Baking soda isn’t just for baking. As a matter of fact, it can be used for all sorts of things in the shop and home. Baking soda doesn’t cost very much, and just about everybody has a box or two in the house, so why not use it to its full potential? We have put together a list of some of our favorite uses. If you would like a copy of our list, “Get Cooking With Baking Soda,” just send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to us, The Super Handyman, in care of the Houston Chronicle, P.O. Box 4260, Houston, TX 77210; please allow six to eight weeks for delivery.

Stir things up

If you are lucky enough to come right home from the paint store with a freshly mixed can of paint, good deal. If not, then you need to take the time to mix it thoroughly. This takes time and is extremely important. Mixing attachments that fit into a power drill can make mixing the paint much faster and easier. If you don’t have one, you can use a wire coat hanger. Pull the ends of the hanger down together and straighten out the hook end. The newly straightened end fits into your drill and, when tightened into place, makes a great stirring attachment for your drill. Try not to make a mess while you’re at it.

Dear Carrells:I like to keep my sawdust in an old aluminum popcorn can. I use the stuff for lots of things in my shop. It’s great for absorbing spilled messes, and can be used to help scrub your hands clean. I also have found it useful as a floor-sweeping compound. I toss it around on the garage floor before I sweep. We used to use something similar in our warehouse, and this seems to work pretty well at home, too. — T.K.

Dear Al:I have been doing some wood projects and have designed a nice “light box” to make tracing the patterns easier. I used an old drawer as the base. I put a small night light inside and placed a sheet of glass over the top. My pattern goes down on the glass first, and then my tracing paper or regular paper goes over that. When the light comes on, it’s very easy to trace the pattern on the paper. The kids have some fun with the light box, tracing some of their pictures on tracing paper. — R.A.

Q: I like my new fireplace, and during my annual spring-cleaning streak, I saw the instant-start logs I used left a large waxy spot on the bricks. Can you give me some options? — N.B.

A:Saturate the stain with mineral-spirits paint thinner to help dissolve it. Then cover it with clay cat litter to absorb it all overnight. With a little luck, the stain will be absorbed, and you can vacuum or sweep it right up. You might have to repeat it. In the future, visit a fireplace-supply store and see if it has a tray you can put down over the bottom of the firebox to catch the wax.

A super handymom tip:When you have an old piece of furniture you can’t bear to part with, think outside of the box. Maybe you can turn an old table into a pot rack over your kitchen island, or maybe an old tea cart can become a new bar cart. Turn your old bed frame into a bench. Just get creative, and see what you can come up with to give that prized possession a new life.

Dear Carrells:I cleaned our fireplace, and it still looked dirty. I used trisodium phosphate to get all of the soot stains off the bricks. The light-colored brick and mortar always look dirty, though. I finally bought some special heat-resistant fireplace paint, and painted the whole inside part black. Now it looks much better. It doesn’t show up at all. The whole fireplace looks better. — P.E.

A super hint:Cleaning the underside of your mower deck shouldn’t cost you an arm or a leg. Pull the spark-plug wire off the plug so it won’t accidentally fire, and turn the blade while you are working to clean or free up the blade. Use long-handled tools when possible.

Dear Al:We removed the wallpaper from our dining-room walls and decided to texture and paint them. We had never done this before, and were worried about the process. When we went to the paint store, however, we found a roller we could use to apply the texture. It rolled the texture onto the wall like paint, and gave it a very nice finish. The paint was easy, and the whole room looks like a million bucks. I’m ready to tackle another room. — H.T.

Q: I replaced the wax ring on my toilet and accidentally tightened it too much. Now there is a crack at the base. Is there anything I can do to repair it, or should I replace it now? — H.K.

A:That’s your call, since we can’t see it. If you want to repair it, use epoxy glue. Make sure you don’t overtighten it when you put it back in place. If it leaks, you will have to replace it.

Dear Kelly:We like to put out a flag on special occasions, though not every day. We realized we are not very good at taking it down at night or before a rain. So we came up with a super way to install our temporary flagpole. We found an umbrella stand that is the same size as our flagpole. We put the pole into the umbrella stand, which is very heavy, and tighten the screw to hold it in place. The stand keeps it upright, and when we are ready to take it down, it’s easy to do. The stand can be moved back into the garage for storage. — F.M.

Got a question or a handy tip? Send it to The Super Handyman in care of this newspaper, or visit our Web site at www.thesuperhandyman.com. Those of general interest will be used in future columns.